New
by DemonicBallerina
Summary: AU. It all begins when Suze finally talks to Jesse, the guy she's had a crush on since she first saw him, because that's when things start to get weird for her. So weird that her ability to see and speak to the dead seems normal in comparison...
1. Prologue: Suze

**Disclaimer: Meg Cabot owns everything from The Mediator.**

**New**

**Prologue – Suze's pov**

I stared at the guy standing at the front of the room. And so did practically every other girl there at the time. God, this guy was _hot!_

I didn't even notice him come in at first. I was sitting in homeroom with my friends, whom I hadn't seen much of over the summer. I wanted to catch up, you know. So I didn't notice the new guy until my friend CeeCee pointed him out to me.

Paul Slater – that was his name, according to Mr Walden – didn't look at all uncomfortable standing there at the front of the classroom. He told us all about how he'd just moved here from Seattle with this kind of arrogant smirk on his handsome, tanned face. This was naturally the complete opposite of how _I'd_ acted when I moved here from Brooklyn at the beginning of the year. But then I guess there's a difference between people looking at you in admiration of your incredibly good looks (like in Paul's case) and people looking at you in shock and confusion over your unusual behaviour (like in my case). I suppose Paul had every right to be smirking like that.

Besides, I could tell just by looking at him that he was so not the type to be nervous about these things. It was obvious that Paul was totally confident and used to being popular. And he was definitely the hottest guy in the class. Which, I realised as he went to take his seat, meant he now belonged to Kelly Prescott. I mean, the only free seat in the classroom was behind hers. It was official. No one else stood a chance.

Not that this mattered to _me_. As if. I didn't need Paul Slater. Sure he was hot, but that didn't mean I was interested. My heart already belonged to another.

It was just a shame that that guy - to _my_ knowledge anyway – had no idea I existed.

Yeah, I'm working on that.

The thing with Jesse is that the moment I first laid eyes on him I knew it was love… Okay, maybe not. Since I don't know the first thing about him and all. Except his name, obviously. But I only know that because CeeCee told me, and she knows everything. At least that's what it seems like sometimes. Because she's smart, you know, and she's editor of the school paper.

So anyway, I'm pretty sure that I'm not _really_ in love with Jesse de Silva, because for all I know he could be a total jerk… Although I doubt it, because CeeCee says she spoke to him one time and he seemed nice enough. Plus, he's never been out with Kelly Prescott, which _has_ to be a good thing.

And even though I don't have solid proof that Jesse isn't everything I have fantasised him to be since I first saw him, I still feel my heart breaking every time he walks past me in school, because I'm not there in his arms.

Okay, not quite.

But when he's near by my face definitely heats up. A lot.

I am so pathetic.

So you can probably tell that I am so not the type of girl guys like Jesse de Silva ask out on a regular basis. I'm not hideously ugly or anything. I guess I'm okay looking. I have nice hair (when it's loose, not when it's tied back - that's not a very good look for me, I've found); an impeccable fashion sense, and I don't have webbed toes or anything…

But I've never had a single boyfriend.

I have never been kissed.

I am probably doomed to remain single for the rest of my life.

Which sucks, really.

There _have_ been one or two guys who have asked me out, then realised their mistake and never spoken to me again. But that doesn't happen often. Which I suppose must be a good thing.

There is a reason for all this, you know. See, I'm kind of… different to other people. And although it's nothing physical, it tends to show in the way I behave sometimes. I try to hide it of course. But it's hard for people not to notice the amount of times I skip class, or how I dislike old buildings, or how occasionally I am caught talking to people who aren't there. Or so people think anyway. They just don't know that those supposedly non-existent people I talk to? They're there, all right.

They just happen to be dead.

And I'm the only one who can see them.

Well not the _only_ one. I know another mediator – that's what we're called. Mediators. Liaisons between the living and the dead. It is our duty to help the souls of the departed move on. To where? I'm not sure. But that's my job and, yeah, it sucks.

Father Dominic, however, would disagree. He's the other mediator I mentioned. And he is also the principal of Junipero Serra Mission Academy. Which would make me perhaps the only girl alive who hangs out with her school's principal on a regular basis. Yeah, I forgot to add that one to the list of things that make me look like a complete freak.

Anyway, while I'm sure that my being a mediator is some kind of curse or something, Father D loves it. The guy's a priest so I guess I can understand that, since priests like helping others. But I am serious; this mediator thing is no joke. Those ghosties can get rough, and I don't get any credit whatsoever for dealing with them. Which is really unfair, I think.

I'm not sure if since I moved to Carmel earlier this year anyone has picked up on just how _special _I am, but if they have then I'm positive you understand why I'm so sure I would never have a chance with Jesse. If I could get him to notice me in the first place, that is.

Or maybe he _has_ noticed me and is just choosing to ignore me. Maybe when I first arrived here all the guys had a meeting and discussed the best ways to ignore Suze Simon. And even Paul Slater got a leaflet about it when he moved here. I mean he definitely wasn't making any effort to look in my direction during homeroom.

It's a conspiracy, that's what it is.

Not that I'm bothered about what Paul Slater thinks about me. There's only one guy whose affections I am after, and it ain't Paul.

So as I sat there in homeroom, only half listening to what Mr Walden was saying, I put Paul Slater out of my mind. Unlike a few girls I could mention, I knew he was nothing to get exited over. We were probably never going to have anything to do with each other, after all.

And I was quite happy to believe that Paul Slater's arrival at this school was not going to be the start of a drastic change in my life.

For a while anyway.

**A/N: I got the idea for this story ages ago, but only recently bothered to type it up. I have got other stories to update, but one more can't hurt can it? I hope you like it. Please tell me what you think.**


	2. Chapter 1: Paul

**Chapter 1 – Paul**

"Oh my God, Paul! Can you believe what Debbie told me today?" Kelly asked as she got into my car.

I was giving her a ride home from school as usual. And this is also usually the time she chooses to complain about all the imperfections in her day. I'm not sure, but I think it could be her way of making it look like we have something in common. You know, because we're talking. I don't think she's noticed that it doesn't exactly work.

I don't really mind it though, it's Jack I feel sorry for. He's my little brother and I have to take him home from school as well. He just sits quietly in the back the whole time, while Kelly goes on about a bunch of people that he doesn't even know exist.

But I figure that there's no harm in having to put up with having to listen to 'Debbie said this, and then she said that,' every five minutes. I mean, Kelly is really hot. So it's worth it… I guess.

Speaking of Debbie, which one was she again? What? This is only my second week at this school; I can't be expected to remember who everyone is already. Especially when there are so many people to remember.

So, since Kelly seemed to be expecting an answer, I just went, "I don't think I was there, what did she say?"

Kelly explained quite happily, I get the impression that she actually enjoys these conversations we have. Well, at least one of us does. "Debbie told me that she was talking to Marissa Clarke – you know her don't you? You know… the senior?"

Right, the senior, of course.

"You know Kelly, I would be so lost in this school without you. How would I ever know who anyone was?"

Kelly scowled at me; I guess she doesn't like sarcasm much. "Shut up."

I just smirked back at her. "Relax, Kel. I'm only joking."

Kelly rolled her eyes. "So you don't know who Marissa is?"

Actually, I did know who she was. I hadn't actually spoken to her, but I'd heard people talking about her a lot.

"Yes I do," I said, "Now are you going to tell me what happened?"

Or you could just end it there, that'd be fine too.

Kelly seemed eager to get back to her story, though, so I wasn't spared. "Okay, so you know how Marissa was supposed to be my friend? Well, Debbie told me she was talking to her today at lunch, and she just totally went and called me a bitch behind my back!"

I raised an eyebrow. "That's it?"

"_Yeah_," she said slowly.

Wow, you know, if my life had almost as much drama in it as Kelly's did, then I'd never have to watch TV again. Seriously. I resisted the urge to tell her this, though, since Kelly didn't really appreciate my sarcasm all that much.

When I looked at Kelly I noticed that she actually seemed confused as to why I wasn't making a bigger deal out of this. "You don't even care? Oh my God, Paul. I can't believe you!"

"Why do _you_ even care?" I asked. "You've got loads of friends."

You can probably guess that the conversation didn't really get much more interesting than that. I had just managed to convince Kelly to get over it when we arrived at my house. I usually drop Jack off there then carry on towards Kelly's house, but today I didn't get five minutes down the road before my cell phone rang. I answered it and Jack's voice sounded in my ear.

"Paul, there's no one home!" he squealed, sounding way more panicked than the situation warranted. "Mum and Dad have gone out!"

I rolled my eyes; Jack was a weird kid, he was paranoid about practically anything. "Jack I'm sure you can survive twenty minutes on your own."

"But – but what if any ghosts come? I don't want to be on my own if a ghost comes."

There was _that_ as well.

I wasn't really surprised that Jack had brought it up - nobody who knew him would be – so I just went, "You'll be fine Jack. Just go to your room and you won't even notice I'm not there."

"But-"

"I won't be long," I told him, then I hung up.

As we drove to her house Kelly went on complaining about anything that popped into her head, while I just listened, commenting on something whenever I could be bothered. When we pulled up outside her place she smiled at me. "You can come in if you want to," she said. "My parents won't be home yet."

I was seriously tempted to just leave Jack on his own and take Kelly up on her offer, but, unfortunately, some insane part of me took over and I turned her down. "I would love to, believe me, but I have get back before my brother has a nervous breakdown from being left on his own."

Kelly seemed disappointed. "I guess you're right."

Before she got out of the car I leaned over and kissed her. I may not have had the sense to ignore Jack and stay at Kelly's house, but that didn't mean I wasn't going to make the most of what I had.

After a while Kelly pulled back and smiled at me. "Are you coming to the Clutch later?"

I smiled back, "Yeah, I'll see you there."

_Paul,_

_Your father and I are visiting your grandfather; we won't be back till late. Look after Jack for us._

_Mum_

I scowled at the note left on the kitchen counter. Why were my parents suddenly so interested in visiting my grandfather anyway? We hardly ever used to visit him when we lived in Seattle, and now we've _moved_ to California, just because the guy refuses to go into a home.

Not that I'm homesick. I'm not bitter because I miss Seattle or anything like that. Sure, I've lived there my whole life, but that doesn't really seem like a good enough reason to get upset about moving to California. What's irritating is that I'm expected to pack up and leave just because my parents say that they have to look after my grandfather. Yeah, like us moving is going to stop him from dying.

I picked up the note and threw it in the bin. I guess I'd have to call Kelly and let her know that I wouldn't be able to make it to Coffee Clutch later. I could invite her over to here though. At least then I'd be able to make the most of my parents being out. I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and headed towards my bedroom.

I was halfway up the stairs when Jack came running out of his room. I could hear the music from _Spyro,_ or whatever it was he'd been playing on, and I knew he'd been making a big fuss over nothing. He'd been perfectly fine here on his own.

"Why wouldn't you come back when I called?" he whined.

I shrugged. "What was I supposed to do? Tell Kelly to walk?" I carried on walking towards my room and Jack followed.

"You could have brought me with you," he insisted.

"You were fine," I said, beginning to get fed up.

"A ghost could have come," Jack said quietly. "Why wouldn't you believe me?"

"God, Jack." I snapped. "Aren't you fed up of asking that question yet? Because everyone's fed up of hearing it."

A hurt look appeared on Jack's face, but I ignored it. It was harsh, I know, but it was probably the best way to shut him up. For about five minutes, anyway.

Before Jack could say anything else I walked into my room and closed the door behind me. I got my cell phone out of my pocket and dialled Kelly's number, she picked up after a few seconds.

"Paul! Hi!" she chirped. "What's up?"

"Hey Kelly," I said sitting down on my bed, "It's about tonight, I'm afraid I can't make it."

"What? Why?" Kelly asked.

I was just about to answer when I noticed something; I wasn't alone in my room. No, Jack hadn't come in while I was talking, even though he was supposed to be the only other person in the house. It was a girl, perhaps the same age as me, with dark hair and pale skin, dressed in a sweater and jeans. She also happened to be glowing in that way that only the dead can pull off.

In other words, she was a ghost.

After glancing at her for a second, I turned away and answered Kelly, "My parents have gone out and I'm stuck looking after Jack."

"You're kidding!" Kelly exclaimed. "And there's no way you can get out of it?"

"No," I replied. "But you can come over here if you want. We could watch a movie…2

"Sounds fun," Kelly said. "I'll be there in an hour, okay?"

"An hour's fine."

At this point I glanced around again and saw that the ghost hadn't gotten the message and left yet. I groaned inwardly. "Look, Kelly, I've got to go now. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Alright then," Kelly replied. "Bye."

I hung up and turned to the ghost. "Whatever it is, I'm really not interested. So you can go."

Sounds simple enough doesn't it? Not according to this girl, though. "I need your help."

"I don't care," I told her simply.

She persisted, though. "I need you to tell someone something."

"Well you're going to have to find someone else to be your messenger. Because I'm not going to do it."

The ghost glared at me for a minute then dematerialised.

I smirked. Wow, if only the rest were as easy to get rid of.

**A/N: Meh, I really don't like that ending, but I can't think of anything else to write. And I'm sorry if anyone found this chapter boring. Itwas just tointroduce Paul really; I'm hoping it will get more interesting in the next chapter.**

**Thank you all so much for the reviews! I can't believe how many I got. You all rock!**

**Now, I would love to know what you thought of this chapter, so review please!**


	3. Chapter 2: Suze

**Chapter 2 - Suze**

"I'm impressed Suze," Mr Walden said. "It's not often that we get work of this standard."

I'm willing to bet that it's not often that students get help from the ghost of someone who was alive during what ever time period they're writing about either. Because that's the only reason it's any good. But as if I was going to tell Mr Walden that.

"Uh, thanks," I said.

Mr Walden smiled at me.

"Um, is that all?" I asked. I mean, really, who wanted to be stuck indoors at lunch, discussing homework with their teacher when they could be out trying to find the table that would give the best view of their crush?

What? It's not like I get to spend any time with him, I may as well make the most of what I've got.

"Actually," Mr Walden began, "If you're not to busy, could you do me a favour?"

I hate it when teachers do that. Act as if what they want you to do is voluntary, I mean. As if you could actually say no. Without a proper excuse, that is.

"Sure, Mr Walden," I said, "what do you want me to do?"

"Thanks Suze, could you just find Jesse de Silva for me and send him here?"

I tried not to gape at Mr Walden. I could not believe it. What are the chances that, out of all the pupils in the school, _I_ would be the one chosen to tell Jesse de Silva that Mr Walden wants to see him? I'd never felt so honoured.

Well, that essay _had_ been pretty good; I guess I deserved it.

I realized though, that I couldn't really let Mr Walden see just how honoured I felt. Yeah, me standing there grinning like an idiot because a teacher told me to do a job for them wouldn't be _too_ weird would it? So as I told him that that would be fine I tried to keep my smile from looking ridiculously over excited, which was pretty much how I felt.

I don't think my behaviour was stupid. Even if it _was_ just a message. I've never spoken to him before, okay? Now I get to go right up to him and actually _talk _to him!

And then, I decided as I walked out and began my search for Jesse, when he heads off to Mr Walden's room, I could tell him that I'm going that way too and I could walk with him! And then we could talk some more. And then maybe he could ask me out!

Okay, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself here, but I can dream can't I? Please let me do it in peace.

I stepped out into the corridor. Now if I were Jesse de Silva, where would I be?

I figured that the most likely place to find him would be at his locker. Classes had only just been dismissed so he was probably still there.

I quickly set off in the direction of his locker. I kind of found out where it was so that I could make an effort to walk that way between classes. You know, so that I could get a glimpse of him if he was there.

Sad, aren't I?

Oh well, at least I'll make a good stalker someday.

I saw him the moment I got to the corridor that his locker was on. He was walking towards me, not like he was going to talk to me or anything, just like I happened to be in the direction he was walking in.

I'd like to say that I approached him in a cool and confident manner, but knowing me I probably looked all nervous and dorky. Luckily though, when I caught his eye, he didn't walk on and pretend he hadn't seen me, he actually _smiled_ at me.

Needless to say, at this point my brain turned to goo and my legs to jelly. And I wasn't too sure if I'd be able to do anything any more productive than stare dreamily at him.

To my surprise though, when I walked up to him I actually remembered to say hi. Amazing really.

"Hello," he replied nicely, "um, is there a problem?"

Mmm his voice was so silky. I'd heard him speak before of course, but now he was speaking to me he sounded even better. Or was that just my imagination? Whatever.

"No," I said, suddenly remembering to answer his question, "I mean…"

Oh, God, I'd forgotten what I was supposed to say. What was it again? About Mr Walden… Oh yeah!

"Um, Mr Walden asked me to tell you that he wants to see you about… something… so you should probably… go see him… yeah…"

_Okaaay_! Dork alert!

And could you talk any faster Suze? I don't think you confused him quite enough.

The look on Jesse's face told me that he definitely agreed with me on the whole talking too fast thing.

Shoot me now, please!

"Excuse me?" he said.

"Mr Walden wants to talk to you," I summarised.

"Oh, right," he said. He smiled at me. "Thanks."

"I smiled back at him, hopefully not too nervously, or goofily, or – well, the list could go on forever so I'll just leave it there for now.

"No problem," I said, or squeaked would probably be more accurate.

I was just about to tell him that I'd go with him when I heard a horrible sound.

"Simon!"

It was CeeCee. I'm not saying that she has a horrible voice or anything like that, it's just that why did she have to call me _right then?_ Jesse was already starting to turn away and walk off in the direction of Mr. Walden's room. And I wasn't going with him, like in my fantasy – granted that in my fantasy I hadn't made a fool of myself either, but you can't have everything… or anything, as it would seem in this case – I was just standing there, staring after him, while CeeCee came up behind me.

"Hey Simon," CeeCee waved a hand in front of my face, "wake up will ya?"

"CeeCee," I said gravely, "Did you see who I was talking to?"

CeeCee looked up.

"Jesse de Silva, eh? So you actually plucked up the courage to talk to him?" CeeCee looked proud of me.

"Mr. Walden gave a message for him," I admitted.

CeeCee rolled her eyes. "Whatever, look, we've got more important things to worry about now."

"Couldn't you have given me five more minutes with him?" I went on as if I hadn't heard her. What? She deserved it, for ruining my chances with Jesse and all. Okay, non-existent chances with Jesse, then, jeez!

"Five more minutes of what?" CeeCee asked. "It was a message! You give it to him then you both walk away and get on with your lives. That's how messages work. There's no 'five more minutes' involved."

I glared at her. "You could be a bit more sympathetic, you know, as my best friend."

But that didn't seem all that important to CeeCee. All she said was, "Not when Kelly Prescott is on the loose."

I groaned. Seriously, is my life _ever_ going to be simple? "What's she done now?"

CeeCee put an arm around my shoulder and started to steer me away from Jesse's locker. "Something that only you, the vice president of the junior class, can get us out of."

I rolled my eyes. "God help us."

CeeCee laughed. "Okay, now here's what's been going on…"

I turned around as CeeCee was talking, just to see if Jesse was still there, but, of course, he'd already gone. I could hardly believe what had just happened. The moment I had been waiting for since practically the first time I saw Jesse had just come and passed. And absolutely nothing had been gained from it. Like it meant nothing at all…

Ugh, why me?


	4. Chapter 3: Paul

**Chapter 3 – Paul**

I spotted Kelly waiting next to my locker and made my way through the crowded corridor towards her. She smiled as she noticed me approach.

"Hi Paul!" she said happily.

"Hey," I replied, giving her a quick peck on the cheek.

She leant against the locker next to mine as I put my books away. "So…" she said, examining her manicured nails, "How was English?"

I shrugged. "Apart form the fact that our teacher is completely crap, I guess it was okay."

I shut the door of my locker and looked at Kelly. She straightened up and we started walking down the corridor.

"Why do you even care?" she asked, "I mean, at least you get to sit there talking all lesson."

I rolled my eyes. "Had it occurred to you, Kelly, that some people actually want good grades?"

Not that it really mattered to me. I'm a straight A student, and that's not going to change just because I've got one crappy teacher.

"Whatever," Kelly muttered dismissively. "Hey, do you know where Debbie is?"

Okay, why would _I_ know where Debbie is?

"No. Who cares where she is anyway?"

Kelly frowned. "I care where she is. Duh, she's my best friend, Paul. Is it a crime for me to want to eat lunch with her?"

"No," I said, " I just thought you might want to do something a bit more interesting for a while."

Kelly looked up at me. "But I can't leave Debbie…"

I put an arm around her shoulders and started to steer her towards an empty classroom. "She'll survive."

"But… Oh okay then," Kelly said in a kind of pathetic attempt to sound reluctant.

She wants me bad, you see.

I pulled her into the classroom and shut the door behind us. Then I backed her up against the wall and started kissing her. See, wasn't this just so much more interesting than having lunch with Debbie? It was just getting good, though, when I heard the door of the classroom opening.

Typical.

I looked up, very irritated, and Kelly quickly stepped away from me, smoothing down her top. The girl who had just stepped into the room took one glance at us and started to look kind of disgusted. I heard her mutter quietly to herself, "God, I am going to kill CeeCee for making me do this."

"Hi Suze," Kelly said in a way that, to anyone who didn't know her very well, might have seemed pleasant. She was pissed off though, I could tell. But if this girl, Suze had noticed this, then she wasn't at all bothered by it.

"What do you want?" Kelly asked.

"I was just wondering when you were planning on telling me about the dance you're apparently planning."

I looked at Suze; I don't think I'd noticed her before, even though, judging by the way she actually cared about what Kelly did as class president, she was probably in our year. Which, I noticed as I looked at her, was pretty weird, I mean, she was gorgeous! Her chestnut brown hair was tied back but she'd left a few curls loose to frame her face, which was so beautiful… Her eyes were a stunning emerald colour and her body… totally flawless, how could I possibly have missed a body like _that_?

After a few seconds I realised I was staring at her, which wasn't really a good idea, with my girlfriend being in the room and all so I turned around and focused on Kelly.

"Didn't I tell you about that?" she asked, trying to sound surprised (it was blatantly obvious that she had kept it from her intentionally, for whatever reason), "Oh, well, you know now, don't you?" she smiled at her in a way that clearly meant 'you can go now'.

But Suze wasn't done yet.

"People have been complaining to me," she said, "so I think we should have a vote or something."

Kelly was outraged. "God, Suze! We did your thing _last_ year! There are people in the school who actually want to have a dance. Why should they all have to miss out just because you want to do something different?"

You know, there are times when what goes on in Kelly's head just seems like the biggest mystery. I wondered if I should feel sorry for her. Suze didn't think it was necessary it seemed, judging by the way she just rolled her eyes and went, "Because I'm speaking on behalf of the majority of the class, Kelly. The only people who want a dance are you and your friends."

Kelly gave her a sour look. "And what makes you think that they'll all love your ideas?"

Suze just looked as if she was getting bored now. "I don't know. I guess we'll have to take a vote and find out."

Kelly just glared at her; she seemed to have forgotten her fake smile and all that.

"What's your idea?" I asked suddenly.

Suze looked at me. She seemed surprised that I was talking to her, like she'd forgotten I was in the room or something. Nice of her.

"Um, well, last year we had these cookouts on the beach and that was pretty popular."

"No, that was _lame_!" Kelly said, obviously forgetting altogether that she was supposed to be pretending that she actually liked Suze. Not that Suze cared, she didn't seem too fond of Kelly, herself.

"It sounds better than a dance," I said without really thinking.

Kelly whipped round to face me, wearing a look of disbelief. Suze also seemed pretty surprised that I hadn't backed Kelly up. I guess it was pretty embarrassing for her, considering I was her boyfriend and all. Um… Oops?

I don't even know why I chose to come to Suze's defence; it's not like I actually care what they choose to do in the end. I don't know, I guess Suze just seemed pretty cool, compared most of the other girls I'd met recently.

Still, I probably should have just agreed with Kelly. It's not like my opinion would have mattered to anyone else.

As Suze looked between Kelly, who was currently giving me a death glare, and me, she started to look awkward. "Um," she said, "look, just think about it, okay Kelly. We can talk about this later." Then she got out of the room. And Kelly let loose.

"What did you say that for? God, Paul, you just made me look like a total idiot!"

Funny how that wasn't hard to do…

Joking! I'm joking. I don't mean that… I swear.

I could have argued, I guess, but I didn't see the point. This was just all so stupid.

"I didn't mean to Kelly," I said, sounding totally sincere. "I'm sorry."

"Paul, how am I supposed to expect the class to vote for this dance if I can't get my own boyfriend to?" she whined.

"Look Kelly, I'll vote for your dance okay."

Kelly looked up at me, not seeming too angry anymore. "You promise?"

"I promise," I said smiling at her. "Just forget I said anything then, okay?"

Kelly nodded.

"Good," I said. Then after a few seconds I went, "So who was that Suze girl anyway?"

"Oh, that was Suze Simon, you know, Brad's stepsister. She's class VP, though God knows why anyone ever nominated her in the first place. I mean, she was quite popular for a while when she first came here, 'cause she was okay then, but then she started doing stuff like saying that I shouldn't schedule all these dances. And because of stupid reasons like the freaks who can't get dates don't want them. She is just _so_ annoying sometimes!"

I bet she is.

You know, I don't think I'll ever understand Kelly. If you ask me, anyone who thinks a cancelled dance is the end of the world is really not right in the head. At least Suze sounded sane.

"Right," I said. "Look, I've got to go do something now. I'll see you later okay?"

Then without waiting for her to reply I walked out of the room.

* * *

"Did you have that new English teacher today? You know, the hot, blonde one? She's really hot… and blonde."

(A/N: lol, I overheard a lad in my form saying that the other day and it just sounded so dumb that I had to have Dopey say it.)

I stared at Brad Ackerman disgustedly and wondered if I'd ever met a bigger idiot in my life. The sad thing was, I don't think he even realised how dumb that sounded. I was already feeling sorry for Suze, I mean, she had to live with the guy.

At least she wasn't related to him, though. Now that would just be embarrassing.

Since Brad seemed to be waiting for a reply I just agreed with him, then quickly got to the reason I'd gone anywhere near the guy.

"I met your step sister today," I said casually.

What? I was curious, so sue me!

Brad didn't seem to think my meeting Suze was such a big deal though, not when he could be talking about a hot blonde English teacher instead.

"So?" he grunted.

"She seems… interesting," I said.

Brad snorted. "Why, 'cause she's such a freak?"

A freak? Okay, now I was intrigued. "How's she a freak?"

Brad stared at me as if I was _I_ was the idiot here. "You met her didn't you? Her and those friends she ditched Kelly and Debbie for?"

"Well, no, I haven't met her friends," I said, "Who are they?"

Yeah, 'cause I'm so good at identifying the people in this school and all.

"You know, that albino chick, CeeCee Webb and that fag, Adam McTavish. The biggest losers on the planet, although I guess she fits in with them, being the freaking Queen of the Undead and all."

Wow, this girl just keeps on getting more and more interesting doesn't she?

"Right," I said choosing to ignore that last comment for now, "So that's it. That's why she's such a freak?"

Brad looked thoughtful, which was just plain weird really, then he said, "Well there was that stuff her mum told us about when she lived in New York. She was always being brought home by the police for breaking into people's apartments for no reason. The girl's just plain weird."

I didn't say anything. To tell the truth, I just didn't get why nobody seemed to like her. I mean, I'd only just found out she existed and I was already fascinated by her. I don't even know why. It must have been Carmel. It was doing things to my head…

At this point Brad told me he had to go find Debbie, the person who was idiotic enough to go out with him, I guess she thought they had a lot in common. I wasn't bothered that our conversation had come to an end, I'd already found out all I needed to know about Suze…

Defender of the freaks…

Queen of the Undead…

Juvenile delinquent…

_Finally_, someone with a personality round here!

**

* * *

**

**A/N: Meh, not one of my better chapters, but I can't think of anything else to do to improve it.**

**Okay, because everyone's been asking me this, and I'm getting fed up of saying this all the time in my review replies, I'm not saying what the pairing is yet, you'll just have to keep reading to find out. **

**Anyway, did you like the chapter? Tell me what you think.**


	5. Chapter 4: Suze

**A/N: I just want to apologise in advance for how pointless and possibly boring this chapter is, but even though it isn't very important, it is relevant to something that happens in a later chapter. So just pretend this is interesting or something. **

**Chapter four – Suze**

I found CeeCee sitting at a table with Adam, as usual. Narrowing my eyes, I marched over and sat down opposite her. Then I glared at her for a while. CeeCee and Adam exchanged confused looks then CeeCee said, "Okay, what?"

"I am NEVER doing that again!" I announced. "In the future if we need to talk to Kelly about anything, then we're gonna have to come up with some other way of doing it. Preferably one that doesn't involve actually going anywhere near her. Like we could sit at the back of a classroom and chuck bits of paper at her with messages on them saying stuff like 'No more dances!' and, and 'You suck!' because-"

"Suze…"

"She's like the most annoying person on the planet. And seriously, who in their right mind would _ever_ want to work with-"

"SUZE!"

"_What_?"

"First, calm down! And second, what on earth are you talking about?"

CeeCee looked totally baffled, which, by the way, I wasn't buying for a second. I mean, like I was actually going to believe that she'd forgotten what she'd just done!

"Don't play innocent with me, CeeCee Webb! You just sent me into the most embarrassing situation ever!"

CeeCee looked more confused than ever. "Okay… Could you please explain _why_ it was so embarrassing?"

I looked at her as if she was stupid, which, you know, was so not the case, but whatever. "_Because_ you were all 'oh, go talk to Kelly, she just went into that classroom over there' but you didn't bother to inform me that she went into that classroom with Paul Slater, who happens to be her boyfriend, if you hadn't noticed, and you also didn't bother to think about _why_ she might have gone into an empty classroom with her boyfriend. And because of that, I walked in on them while they were seeing how far they could shove their tongues down each other's throats, which I think counts as a really embarrassing situation, wouldn't you agree?"

Adam gasped and turned to CeeCee. "Cee! How could you?" he asked in a mock-horrified voice.

God, that was so typical of him. Why do I even put up with them?

CeeCee wasn't any better; she just ignored my pain and went, "So how did it go?"

"I just told you how it went," I said kind of moodily.

"And it was a nice story, but I kinda want to know what Kelly said when you asked her about the dance. You did talk to her didn't you? Please don't tell me you ran away screaming when you saw them making out, 'cause if you did then I'm so making you go talk to her again."

"No you're not, 'cause I said I wasn't going to do that again. Weren't you listening? I said we were gonna do the paper chucking thing. Ooh! Maybe we could tie the paper around little rocks 'cause then they'd travel further and-"

"Suze, stop talking, you're scaring Adam."

"No I'm not. Adam's fine."

"I am fine, Suze can continue if she wishes."

"Shut up, Adam. So you _didn't_ talk to Kelly then?"

"Oh, yeah I talked to her."

"So what did she say?"

"We're gonna have a vote."

"Good."

"Yeah, good."

"So when do we get to throw rocks at Kelly?"

We turned to stare at Adam.

"_What?_" he said, "It sounded like a good plan to me!"

Half an hour later I was sat next to Adam in one of the science labs. We were supposed to be doing… something, but mixing acids and stuff together so that we can watch them fizz a bit is just a bit boring, so we were finding some other way to entertain ourselves. Namely trying to find the best way to flick screwed up bit of paper into Kelly's hair. Mature, I know, but I swear Adam MADE me do it!

It was quite fun though, when we got her we started cheering, but we had to pretend it was because we were so glad that our experiment was going really well. Hopefully she didn't notice that we hadn't actually got round to starting yet. She just gave us an OMG-you-guys-are-total-freaks look then turned back round and started having this conversation with Debbie that, if you ask me, was totally inappropriate for the middle of a science lesson. I pulled a face at Adam when I got the gist of it, which was something like:

Kelly: "So… I went over to Paul's last night."

Debbie: "Oh my God! Really? Did you two finally…"

Kelly: "Yep!"

Debbie: "Oh my God! Was it good?"

Kelly: "Yeah!"

And so on…

God, like I really want to hear all about Kelly's sex life during double chemistry. I mean, as if it's not bad enough as it is.

Oh well, at least they attempted subtlety.

At this point Adam successfully flicked another piece of paper into Kelly's golden locks. I smirked as he started to cheer. Kelly turned round again and gave us another weird look. "Isn't this exciting?" I asked her.

**A/N: The ending sucked, I know. But I couldn't think of anything else to write and, let's face it, wouldn't you rather that I got on with the next chapter (where something that is actually interesting happens) than wait for me while I waste more time on this chapter? **

**I thought so.**

**I'll try to update soon. Thanks for the reviews.**


	6. Chapter 5: Paul

**Chapter 5 – Paul**

I made my way to where my car was parked alone today. Kelly was going… somewhere with Debbie, which meant that I was left with my brother. I was sure that fun times were going to be had by all. Especially since he was still upset about what I did yesterday, but I noticed, not upset enough to refuse the money I offered him to stay in his room all last night, when I was with Kelly. Seriously though, you'd think the guy would have quit whining at me by this morning. Hopefully he'd calmed down while he was at school.

To tell the truth, though, I _was_ kind of pleased that I didn't have to give Kelly a lift today. I don't think I should have been, because after I'd dropped Jack off at home, it was the only time we ever really got to be alone together as Kelly never seems to go anywhere without like a million people going with her. I suppose things were better that way, though. I mean, it was only when we went out on a proper date that I realised that she had no personality whatsoever, so you can probably guess how much fun we had. And giving her a ride home wasn't that much better. To put it bluntly, I was getting seriously bored of Kelly.

And the fact that I fancied a girl who she pretty much hated had something to do with it as well, I think.

Just as I was thinking this, I looked up and, to my surprise, found myself looking into the emerald eyes of said enemy of Kelly Prescott.

Suze…

It's weird when you've spent half the day thinking about someone you barely know and have practically nothing to do with and then you suddenly find her waiting by your car just as you're about to go home. Weird in a pleasant sort of way, though because she smiled at me when she noticed that I was looking at her. And for a minute I just sort of stared at her, she had the most beautiful smile... I soon realised, of course, that I was acting like a total idiot, what with all the staring, and I snapped right out of it. "Uh, hi," I said.

I would just like to point out now, that I am NEVER like this. It was just that there was something about Suze… I don't have a clue what it was, and I had a feeling that it was probably a bad thing, since it was turning me into a total loser in just the small amount of time since I'd noticed her. But it was also making me think that maybe that didn't matter, just as long as I got to stay with her for just a little bit longer.

It was stupid, I know, but whatever.

"Hi," she said, "Still in one piece, I see."

I gave her a confused look, not sure what she was talking about.

"You know, because of the dance thing?" she explained, "Kelly seemed pretty mad about what you said."

I grinned. I'd forgotten about that. "Oh, yeah. I think I'd kind of forgotten how to think logically. You know, just for a second."

"It happens to everyone," she said, grinning back at me in this playful way that I could tell wasn't actually meant to be sexy, but it really was. "There's just no disagreeing with me, I'm _that_ irresistible."

Yep, Suze was showing definite signs of being a hell of a lot more interesting to talk to over a meal in an expensive restaurant, than Kelly ever was. And the fact that she was incredibly hot was definitely an added bonus.

"So, what are you up to?" I asked casually, since people don't usually hang around other people's cars for no reason. Unless of course, she was just doing it because she wanted people to think that my silver BMW really belonged to her. I doubted it though.

"Just waiting for my step brothers so we can go home. I don't know what's holding them both up."

It was only then that I realised that the Land Rover parked next to my car must have belonged to her, or one of her stepbrothers. So she hadn't been waiting to talk to me after all. Which was pretty disappointing.

"You know, if you were waiting here for me, you can admit it, I won't tell anyone."

She smiled a bit. "Hmm, no, still sticking with the step brothers story."

"Come on, you know what you really want is to go out for a coffee or something with me."

I hadn't actually been planning to ask her out. Well not yet, anyway. But I really wanted to talk to her, just to get to know her a bit better, and it looked as if this chat was going to be cut short as soon as her stepbrothers showed up. So now seemed like a pretty good time to ask.

Suze, however, didn't seem to agree. She looked really surprised. "Hey," she said, "are you asking me out? You can't ask me out, you've got a girlfriend!"

She was right.

Damnit.

This was kind of a weird situation, because I don't make a habit of cheating on my girlfriends. Seriously, I'm not that kind of guy. But this was a special case. A really special case. And one that I'd just blown completely, it seemed.

"No, I can't, can I? Look, just forget I said anything," I told her, wishing that I'd had the patience to wait until I'd dumped Kelly before I asked her out.

"How can I? You just asked me out!" she still seemed kind of freaked out, which was weird, because I really wasn't used to that kind of reaction from girls who I'd just asked out.

"I know I did, look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to… offend you or anything."

Fortunately I noticed at this point that Jack had finally arrived, so I could get out of here. Which was good, because this was so not what I'd had in mind when I'd innocently asked her if she wanted to get a coffee (which I now realise was a stupid idea because I wasn't exactly going to bring my brother with me, 'cause that would be _really_ normal, wouldn't it?). I unlocked the car so he could get in.

"I'll go now," I told her and I started to open the car door but then I turned round and said, "Just out of curiosity, what if I hadn't been going out with Kelly? Would you have said yes then?"

"I, um…" she looked at me with her wide eyes, "I don't know… uh maybe, yeah? I don't know."

I smiled at how flustered she was. It was kind of sweet really, and it was very different to what I was used to from girls.

I figured that the gist of what she was saying was 'Yes I want you bad, but like I'm going to admit it after you just tried to get me to cheat on your girlfriend with you.' And I also figured that that could easily be changed to a simple 'yes' and quite possibly 'I want you bad' too, if I finally did what I should have done a long time ago and dumped Kelly.

"Cool," I said then I got into my car.

* * *

It was about five when Kelly rang me. I had been wondering when the best time would be to break up with her – tonight or tomorrow morning, I wasn't sure - but I guess the decision had been made for me. She started going on about how her parents were out for the evening so did I want to come over? I wasn't even tempted, which normally would have been weird, but that's how ready I was to get out of this relationship.

"I was thinking that we could meet somewhere. I wanted to talk to you about something."

I could practically hear her frowning. "What's wrong with coming to my place?" she asked.

Because that wouldn't be _too_ uncomfortable, would it? For all I knew she could be lighting candles and deciding which of her CDs was the most romantic. God, so not thinking about that right now.

"I just don't want to," I told her, wondering if maybe it would be better to just get this over with now.

She was silent for a minute, then she said in a quiet voice, "You want to break up with me, don't you?"

Wow, she must be a lot brighter than I gave her credit for. Okay, maybe not a _lot,_ because there had been that incident this morning… but, you know, it hadn't taken her long to figure it out.

"Uh, well… yeah."

What? There was no point in breaking it to her gently if she'd already figured it out. This just made things a whole lot easier.

"Oh my God! But I thought you liked me. I thought you enjoyed last night."

I know this is going to make me sound like the world's biggest jerk, but I've heard that line so many times now that it's getting boring.

"I did," I told her, "but let's face it Kelly, it's just not enough, we've got absolutely nothing in common. To be honest, I'm not sure how we stayed together for as long as we did."

"What, are you saying that I'm _boring _now? Even though _your_ idea of joining in with a conversation is making a sarcastic remark about one of my friends every now and again, _I'm_ the boring one?"

I rolled my eyes. Oh well, it could be worse; at least she hadn't started crying. "Right. So you're glad we're breaking up? Good. I guess I'll see you around."

"Wait Pau-"

I hung up.

Well that went better than I'd expected.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, so that wasn't as long I was hoping it would be, but I've been over and over it and I can't think of anything else to add in so I'm just going to post it as it is. And I'm hoping that I'll get more reviews for this chapter, because I got five reviews for the last chapter after getting seventeen for the one before, which is kind of disappointing. Thanks to those who did review,though, you know I love you!**


	7. Chapter 6: Suze

**Chapter 6 - Suze**

I needed to talk to CeeCee. And Fast. What had happened with Paul… It was to weird for me to be expected to keep it to myself for too long. Unfortunately, I'd already had to keep it to myself for the whole of last night, because I hadn't been able to get hold of CeeCee. So I'd been left to think about it on my own and I just couldn't get my head around it.

I mean, no one's ever wanted to go out with me before, so why would Paul, who was almost as hot as Jesse, want to? If it had been any other guy (well, maybe not Jesse) it would have made sense. But he was the hottest guy in our year, he was going out with the prettiest girl in our year and he was also really popular, so you could almost say that we were from totally different worlds. So on what planet would that actually make sense?

So when I got to school, the next day I raced – well okay walked as fast as I could get away with since I didn't want to spend the next half hour being lectured by Sister Ernestine. That would so not help – towards my homeroom to find CeeCee. I only slowed down when I was at the door. I peered in, searching for the white-blonde head of my best friend. She wasn't there. I'll tell you who was there though, Paul. Seriously, I could have screamed in frustration.

I spun round and started to head away from the classroom.

"Suze?"

I looked up and saw CeeCee standing in front of me. "There you are!" I said, relieved. "Good. Let's take a walk."

I grabbed her arm and started to steer her away from the room.

"Uh, Suze? We're supposed to be going into the room, you know, no away from it. Because that would make us late."

I kept walking. "We can't talk in there, _he's_ in there."

CeeCee looked really confused. "Which he? What are we talking about anyway?"

"Paul."

"Paul?" CeeCee looked unimpressed. "God, please don't tell me you're still traumatised about what you saw yesterday and you can never go near him again because of it. Because if that's the case-"

"It's not" I said, rolling my eyes, "God, I'm so over that. This is something entirely different. He-" I looked around, checking that there was no one to over hear us. Satisfied that we were alone, I continued, "He asked me out last night!"

CeeCee's eyes widened. "He asked you out? But he's going out with-"

"Kelly! I know! That's why I said no. But still, he _asked me out!_"

"Wow. That is _so_ weird."

I didn't appreciate the joke. It was true, but she didn't have to rub it in.

"_Hey_!" I said, annoyed.

CeeCee smirked. "You were asking for it."

I glared at her. "Whatever."

"So, what happened? Did he just come up to you and randomly and go," she put on a deep voice, "'hey what are you doing on Friday night?'"

I snorted. "Was that an impression of him?"

"It might have been."

"Please don't try to do that again."

CeeCee glared at me jokingly, "You are _so_ jealous of my talent."

"Yeah, jealous, that's it…" I said with a smile.

CeeCee grinned. "So are you gonna answer the question?"

I thought about it. "Well it wasn't totally out of the blue because we were talking. And he was being really nice, and not how I would have expected him to be, because I always thought there was a law that you had to be a complete jerk to date Kelly Prescott, but whatever. So it kind of threw me a bit, and in my state of confusion I might have kinda flirted with him, just a bit."

CeeCee looked surprised. "Suze! I never knew you had it in you!"

"Whatever. He was just easy to talk to is all," I explained, well as far as I could, because I didn't get it either.

"And Jesse isn't?"

God, trust her to bring _that_ up.

"Hey, that's not fair! I don't know Jesse. Well not properly."

"Okay, then. So what happened next?"

"He asked me if I wanted to go for a coffee with him."

CeeCee frowned a little as she thought about this strange occurrence. "And you're sure he wasn't just asking you as a friend?"

I wondered whether I should be offended by that question because it came _this_ close to 'Why would someone ask _her_ out?' But seeing as it was CeeCee, who always tries to think about things logically and realistically, I let it slide.

"Positive. He actually looked kind of guilty when I started going 'Oh my God, how can you ask me out? You've got a girlfriend?'" CeeCee stared at me, horrified. "Hey I never said that I'd actually been thinking about what I was saying!"

She shook her head in disbelief and I wondered if I shot her now then would anybody notice me hiding her body in a stock cupboard? Probably. I decided not to.

At this point I noticed that Sister Ernestine was lurking around not far from us and glaring in our direction, so we decided to head back towards our homeroom.

"That's not all that happened though," I said as we walked. "Just before he left he asked me if I would have said yes if he hadn't been going out with Kelly."

CeeCee looked at me, interested. "And what did you say?"

"Well, I wasn't really clear, but I think it was along the lines of yes."

CeeCee was shocked. "Really? But what about you're undying love for Jesse?"

I was a really good question, one that I'd spent the night asking myself. And I think I finally had an answer. "I think I'm going to have to admit that me going out with Jesse is never going to happen."

"When did you decide that?" She seemed genuinely surprised; one consequence of how much I went on about Jesse was that she knew exactly how much I liked him.

"Yesterday, I think. I finally spoke to him and I was so excited about it. I kept thinking 'this is it, he's finally going to notice me' But he didn't even care. If he had he wouldn't have walked off like that, he would have… Oh I don't know."

CeeCee looked at me sympathetically. "Maybe he-"

I interrupted her, "Don't. There's no point in filling my head with all these false hopes. I've just got to get over him. I mean, it's no big deal, it was just a little crush, right?"

CeeCee nodded, but I couldn't help noticing that she seemed doubtful. I tried to ignore it.

"Hey," I added, "at least Paul seems to like me."

CeeCee gasped jokingly. "Are you admitting that a guy might actually like you?"

"It is kind of weird isn't it?"

"No, it's not. Paul likes you and it's because you are gorgeous and funny and smart and there is absolutely no reason why anyone wouldn't like you."

Right. And that's why I have so many male admirers right now.

"It's just a shame that Paul has a girlfriend," I said, knowing that there was no point in arguing with her.

"Minor detail," CeeCee said. "Come on we're going to be late."

* * *

It turned out that I was wrong about Paul having a girlfriend. Because he didn't. Not anymore, anyway. It was all over the school that Kelly Prescott had been dumped last night.

This of course was the cause of much confusion for me. Had Paul broken up with Kelly because of me? Did this mean he was going to ask me out again? If so then did I actually _want_ to go out with him? I mean, it's one thing to say yes when your answer doesn't really make a difference, it's another for it to result in an actual date.

The one decision I did make though, was that I was going to stay away from Paul until I knew what I was going to say, should he ask me out again.

Nice plan. Too bad it didn't work out.

He found me at lunch when I was sitting with CeeCee and Adam. When I saw him approaching I foolishly thought that it they would support me and not run away as soon as they could, but sadly that was one thing that I couldn't count on them for.

"Um… hi," I said, looking up at Paul.

"Hey," he replied.

Then we went kind of silent for a bit.

Well, this was uncomfortable.

"Uh, do you want to sit down?" I asked, because him standing there doing nothing wasn't really helping matters.

"Oh… yeah," he said and sat down opposite me.

The silence continued for a few seconds. God I hope that CeeCee and Adam running off like that wasn't so presumptuous that he'd gone off me. Wait, did the fact that I actually cared mean I liked him now? I am so confused!

"So, I uh, broke up with Kelly…"

"Yeah, I heard about that," I said, glad that we finally had _something_ to talk about.

"I just realised that I don't actually like her, you know?"

"She is kind of annoying," I said, warming up to the conversation. Hey, I never said I was Kelly's number one fan.

"Exactly," he agreed. "And we had absolutely nothing in common. And… Well, I like you, Suze. I know it sounds weird 'cause we've only just met and all, but I want to get to know you better. So… you still up for that coffee?"

"Um…" Another thing had just occurred to me, was it skanky to agree to go out with a guy who had only just gotten out of a relationship? Or did it not count if the guy had broken up with the other girl because he wanted to go out with you instead?

Either way, I guess it didn't matter, because I knew one thing for sure, if I said no to Paul now then I'd be kicking myself later. After all, he was hot and nice and he apparently had nothing in common with Kelly, which if you ask me, can only be a plus. Let's face it; I would have been crazy not to say yes.

I smiled. "Yeah, I think I am."

He smiled back, seeming really pleased. "Great," he said.

It was official. I, Suze Simon, had a date.

Take that, Jesse.

* * *

**A/N: I'm not totally happy with this chapter, but it'll do, I guess. Thank you to everyone who reviewed as usual. I don't think I'll be as quick with the next chapter as I was with this one, because I'm not totally sure about what I want to happen in it. But I'm hoping you'll all tell me what you think in that time, though, you never know, you might inspire me! And if anyone has any ideas for random stuff that can happen in the next few chapters then I'd like to hear them because I have a feeling that the events I've got planned are going to seem all rushed together if I don't think of a way to pad them out. Let me know if you think of anything. **


	8. Chapter 7: Suze

**Chapter 8 – Suze**

I stepped into the café Paul and I had picked out and he followed behind me. I'd wondered, at first, why we weren't going to the Coffee Clutch, because that's where practically everyone in our school hangs out, and it's pretty cool there. Plus I didn't really know anywhere else that we could go round here. But I guess Paul must have a lot more sense than I do because he'd obviously realised that that's where Kelly would be. And going out with me, of all people, right under her nose? Not such a good idea. I mean, Kelly is a popular girl, who knows what connections she has? Come on, I don't want to be assassinated or whatever at the age of sixteen. Who needs that?

So instead we just drove around for a bit, looking for somewhere that was nice, but didn't have a bunch of people we knew hanging out there. Eventually we stopped outside a small café near the beach.

I followed Paul over to a table in a corner of the room. After I'd sat down and Paul had gotten our drinks I smiled at him and went, "So do you like it here in Carmel?"

He looked like he was thinking about it. "I guess so," he said after a few seconds. "It kind of sucks that I had to move away from my friends and everything, though."

I totally knew how he felt; I'd been through exactly the same thing at the beginning of the year when I'd been forced to move away from Gina, my best friend in Brooklyn. I told Paul about this and then I said, "It's not so bad in the end, though, is it?"

Paul gave me a small smile. "No, I guess it's not," he said.

I grinned at him. "You'll get used to it."

I soon discovered that I liked Paul a lot. He was really easy to talk to, which surprised me because he's really cool and popular and I'm just… not. He seemed to be enjoying himself as well, I noticed. This was also surprising, I thought, because I didn't get why he seemed to like me so much. There were so many girls in our school that were so much prettier and way more interesting than me (well, okay, I suppose you can't exactly call my life dull, what with the whole mediator thing and all, but still, _he_ didn't know about that). So why would he want me?

"Are you okay?" Paul asked me suddenly.

I looked up at him. "Huh?" I said, then my eyes widened apologetically, "Oh, yeah, sorry."

Paul sat back in his chair lazily, looking amused. "You totally zoned out. Am I really that boring?"

Oh God, way to make a good impression, Suze. "No! Really, you're not. I was just thinking is all."

Paul was still smirking, but he looked interested. "What about?"

I suppose I owed him an explanation, but how was I supposed to tell him what I'd just been thinking? Somehow I didn't think 'Look Paul, everyone thinks I'm a freak, why don't you?' is the type of thing you're supposed to bring up on a first date.

"It's just that…" I paused, trying to think of the best way to explain what I was thinking, "you know before, when you said you liked me?"

"Yeah, what about it?" he asked, looking ever so slightly confused, like he wasn't sure where I was going with this.

"_Why_ did you say it? I mean, we hardly know each other."

Paul smiled again and I hoped he wouldn't stop this time because he has one of the nicest smiles I've ever seen. I honestly think I could have looked at him all night. "I don't know really," he said. "I guess I just liked the was you handled Kelly yesterday. It was really cool. And the fact that you're willing to stand up to her and won't take any of her crap sets you apart from practically everyone else in our school."

I grinned, feeling quite proud of myself. He thought I was special! Go me!

"Except you," I said, because he obviously didn't let Kelly push him around either, otherwise he'd never have broken up with her.

Paul grinned back at me. "Yeah, that's why I know we're gonna be so good together, Suze." He said it jokingly but there was something in his eyes that let me know he was being serious, that he honestly wanted to be my boyfriend. It was a weird thought. But not, I realised, an unpleasant one.

"Do you want to go for a walk or something?" I asked him. It was a really nice evening and we'd just been sitting in a café for about an hour. A change of scene would be pretty good right now.

"Yeah," Paul said, "good idea."

We ended up walking along the beach. I'd kicked off my flip-flops and was enjoying how soft the sand was beneath my feet. I looked up at the sky. "Oh, hey look, we're just in time for the sunset," I said, flashing a grin at Paul, then turning back towards the ocean.

"That's one more good thing about living here. I never saw anything like this when I lived in New York. It's so amazing that you can just look out of your window here and see something so beautiful."

"I know what you mean," Paul agreed.

After a while he said, "Thanks for agreeing to come tonight."

I turned to face him, surprised that he thought he needed to thank me.

He seemed to guess what I was thinking because then he went, "It's just that after how you reacted yesterday I had a small feeling you'd say no."

I felt myself blush at the thought of how I'd acted. I'd really hoped he wouldn't bring that up. "Sorry about that. I was kind of a spaz, wasn't I?"

Paul grinned. "I thought it was kind of cute," he said.

He did? Seriously? But no one thinks I'm cute! I'm Suze Simon. I'm aggressive, not cute.

But Paul seemed sincere enough and I decided that if he'd deluded himself that I'm cute then who am I to correct him?

"I was just kind of surprised," I explained.

"So was I, kind of. I hadn't exactly meant to say anything, it just sort of slipped out."

I gave him a small – and, yeah, slightly embarrassed – smile. "Yeah, well, I know all about that," I said and Paul laughed.

Then he smiled this really warm smile and said, "I'm really glad you said yes, though. I enjoyed this evening."

Aw, he was being really sweet. And I could tell from the way he was looking at me that he meant it.

"Yeah, same here," I told him.

Then Paul reached out and took hold of my hand, pulling me just a little bit closer to him. It had a strange effect on me, I could feel my heart speeding up and all I could do was stare at him. And when he started pulling me even closer to him and I knew he was going to kiss me I didn't even panic about it being my first kiss because when his lips pressed against mine it just felt so good.

We must have stood there in the middle of the beach with our arms around each other for a while because I noticed that it was really dark by the time I pulled away from him.

"It's getting late," I said, looking up at him.

"It is, isn't it?" Paul said, smiling back down at me.

"I think I should probably be getting home now."

Paul nodded, still smiling that gorgeous smile that made me want to pull him back down so I could feel those lips against my own again. "Come on," he said, "let's head back to the car."

I smiled; hardly believing how good things had gotten for me in such a short space of time. "Yeah, lets go."

-o-o-o-

When I got home I went straight up to my room, ready to phone CeeCee and tell her all about the date, like she'd made me promise to do. But just as was closing my bedroom door I realised that I wasn't going to be able to do that just yet.

Because I was probably going to be a bit preoccupied with the ghost sitting on my bed.

Seriously, she was just sitting there; casually looking around my room like this was a perfectly normal situation for her to be in. When she noticed that I'd come in she jumped to her feet and chirped, "Hey!"

Whoa, perky much?

"Who are you?" I asked.

She grinned at me. "Well, I guess, that's a start," she said. "The last guy I went to was just like 'get out' practically the second I showed up," she rolled her eyes, "It was so rude."

"Right," I said, "you haven't answered my question."

"Oh, I'm Grace. Sorry, it's just a relief to actually be able to talk to someone."

It's not often that I meet a ghost like Grace; she seemed really cheerful for someone who was dead. She was a pretty dark haired girl, about the same age as me, by the looks of it. She looked like someone who should be having fun with her friends, not sitting in the bedroom of a mediator, sorting out her unfinished business.

At least I _assumed_ that's why she was here; she hadn't exactly explained what she wanted yet.

"So, what can I do for you Grace?" I asked, sitting down on my bed. She sat down next to me, which was weird and just a bit too chummy for my taste. I don't like getting close to ghosts, it's depressing, you know?

"I need you to tell someone something," she told me, not seeming to notice that I'd shuffled away from her a bit.

"Okay, shoot."

Grace took a deep breath, which was kind of pointless for a ghost, but whatever, they all do it. "I want you to tell him that it's okay for him to move on, I want him to be happy and just because I'm gone doesn't mean he shouldn't be."

I nodded. I'd had to deliver lots of different variations of that message to so many people in my time as a mediator. This was going to be simple.

"Okay," I said, "and who am I telling?"

Grace smiled. "Jesse de Silva."

-o-o-o-

**A/N: I don't really like the date bit of this chapter so to make up for it I added the last bit. It wasn't supposed to happen for another few chapters, but I guess it means that this story is finally getting somewhere and might actually have a proper plot sometime soon. Hurrah! This chapter _was_ meant to be in Paul's point of view, but when I started writing it was kind of boring so I decided to switch to Suze's POV, trust me, it's better this way. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, as usual. If you haven't reviewed yet then what are you waiting for? Go on, don't be shy! **


	9. Chapter 8: Paul

**Chapter 8 – Paul**

"How could you, Paul? I mean, the day after we broke up! And her of all people! I can't believe you could be so cold."

Well, I suppose we couldn't have kept it quiet forever. Everything was bound to come out at some time. And now, two days later, the news that I was seeing Suze Simon had finally spread around the school.

And Kelly was not happy about it.

So that was why I was stood in the middle of the corridor on the way to English with Kelly glaring at me. Passers by were giving us interested glances, wondering what all the drama was about. Although I suspected that a few of them already had a good idea.

"Do you have any idea how embarrassing this is? That you dumped me for _her_? _Why_?"

I couldn't believe she actually had to ask. Well, okay, I could, but only because it was Kelly. For anyone else, such a ridiculous question would have been inexcusable.

"Why are you talking to me, Kelly?" I asked, bored.

I hadn't actually expected her to confront me about this, you know. She was talking about me embarrassing her, but, if you ask me, she was actually just embarrassing herself by being so dramatic about it all. Still, I suppose her shame must have been too great to keep to herself, and I was the one who had to feel her wrath because of it.

Lucky me.

Kelly narrowed her eyes, giving me the dirtiest look she was capable of. "Why do you have to be such a jerk, Paul? You didn't even know Suze at the beginning of the week, and you still wouldn't if it wasn't for me!"

Hmm, it was kind of cold, now that she mentioned it. But, still at least I got what I wanted out of it.

So I suppose I should have been thanking her, then. Maybe Kelly isn't as bad as I always thought she was.

Actually forget I said that.

"Well then thanks for the introduction, Kelly," I said with a smile in Kelly's direction, which only seemed to upset her more. Okay, so maybe I _was_ enjoying this.

"What did I do to deserve it, though? Did you pick her just to embarrass me? Because it really seems like you did."

God, sometimes the idiocy and vanity of this girl really astounds me. And I thought _I_ had a tendency to be self-centred. Well… just a little bit.

"And the thought that maybe I just like her better than you and that's all there is to it, never even crossed your mind?"

Okay, so I was wrong before, the look she gave me then _wasn't_ the dirtiest look she was capable of, the look she gave me when I said _that_ was the dirtiest look she was capable of. The girl just really couldn't cope with the fact that she _wasn't_ the be all and end all of the universe. Too bad.

"God," she said, sounding furious, "I don't know what I ever saw in you, Paul Slater! You're a jerk!"

I smirked as she stormed away. Maybe that had been worth being late for my lesson after all.

* * *

Kelly didn't stop giving Suze and me dirty looks for the rest of the day. It was like everywhere I went she was there, glaring at me. At first I was worried that Suze might decide that being practically stalked by a jealous Kelly Prescott wasn't exactly what she had in mind when she agreed to go out with me, so maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all. But, of course, I was wrong. It was stupid of me to think that anyway, since part of the reason I noticed her in the first place was that she didn't care what Kelly thought.

Apart from the Kelly problem, though, everything was great. The date went brilliantly. When I first met her somehow I'd just known that she'd be really cool, but even then I hadn't expected to find myself like in her quite as much as I did. And it seemed that Suze liked me too, she'd invited me over to have lunch with her and her friends the day after the date and today I was sitting with her again. Although, I have to admit I would have preferred it if it had just been the two of us.

"She is really creeping me out, you know," Suze's friend Adam said, glancing nervously at Kelly. "I swear I can actually _feel_ her staring at us. Can't you make her stop?"

I looked up at Kelly when I realised that this question was directed at me. "I don't know," I said, shrugging. "She's not my problem anymore, thank God."

CeeCee grinned when I said this. "I don't remember ever seeing her this angry," she told me, sounding impressed. "Well there was that time in our freshman year when Adam accidentally spilled coffee on her new shirt, that was pretty bad, but this really does come close."

Adam nodded in agreement, looking proud of himself.

"He couldn't have done it without me, though," Suze announced. "Remember that. Kelly would never have been this angry if Paul hadn't asked me out."

"Suze saves the day again," Adam said and he and CeeCee looked proudly at their friend.

"Yeah! Go me!" Suze cheered.

I grinned at her and she smiled back in that same way she had in the parking lot yesterday, the way that always seemed to catch me off guard and I'd forget for a minute that I'm the sort of guy who's never had a problem getting anyone he wants without ever really trying. Yeah, not exactly a comforting thought, but somehow, I couldn't get enough of it. It made me feel like this was different to all the other relationships I've been in, and I'll admit that that's quite a few, even if 'relationship' was sometimes the wrong word to describe them. But something told me that it was going to be different with Suze, it was going to last this time.

We went out again that weekend. Then again during the week. Being with Suze seemed really new and exciting to me. And not because I'd only just met her, it was because I've never met anyone who's made me feel like that before. I'd never met a girl like Suze before. I wasn't all about looks or sex with her. It went beyond that, Suze and I would talk for hours about anything that came to our heads. She'd make me laugh, and just the thought of seeing her when I was having a bad day cheered me up. I had more fun on one date with Suze than I had the whole time I was with Kelly. There's not even really any point in comparing the two of them. There was absolutely no competition between them; Suze would win every time.

I loved finding out new things about her, or being able to talk to her about totally pointless things that would suddenly seem like the most fascinating thing on earth. Having never felt like this before, I sure as hell didn't get what was going on in my head. But I went with it anyway because Suze just had that effect on me

I spent as much time as I could with Suze and a week passed in what seemed like no time at all.

* * *

When my parents got home from work on Thursday evening they told Jack and me that they needed to talk to us.

This was going to be fun.

Not.

I noticed right away that my mom was upset about something and I wondered if maybe my grandfather had croaked already. 'Cause if so, this whole moving to California thing was a total waste of time. Well, okay, maybe not since I'd met Suze.

The look on my dad's face seemed to confirm this suspicion: he looked annoyed, which is how I imagine he'd feel if he had a funeral to organise.

"What's up?" I asked.

I didn't get the answer I expected, which was a relief. I wouldn't have put it past my parents to move straight back to Seattle once they weren't needed any more. And of course, that was the last thing I wanted right now.

"It turns out that there are a few things that your mom and I need to sort out in Seattle," my dad told us. "I won't bore you with the details, but we need to go back there for a few days."

"What, all of us?" I asked.

"You two shouldn't need to come," Mom replied. "Although I do feel bad leaving you both here…"

Yeah, like having my parents out of the house for a few days was going to be a bad thing.

"When are you going?"

"We leave tomorrow and we'll be back by Sunday. You two will be alright on your own until then, won't you."

At that point I looked at Jack and realised with horror that I was expected to baby-sit him for the whole weekend.

"I'm not looking after him," I said suddenly.

My mother looked shocked, like she always did whenever her supposedly perfect son said or did anything that was, well… less than perfect. I didn't care, though; there was no way I was spending my weekend babysitting my little brother.

"Paauul!" Jack whined, he looked like he was going to cry or something.

"Come on, Paul help us out a little here. There's nowhere else that Jack can stay."

"Sorry, but I've got plans this weekend," I told them.

"But you always have plans, Paul!" Jack said. "Can't you just say you're busy for once?"

"Why can't you take him with you?" I asked, annoyed. "There are plenty of people in Seattle that he can stay with while you do whatever it is you've gotta do."

My parents didn't look pleased with the idea, but there was no way I was backing down. My mom must have realised this because after a few seconds she sighed and said to my dad, "I guess we could take him."

He nodded. "Looks like you're coming with us, Jack."

"Okay…" Jack said quietly. I noticed that he didn't actually look very happy about this. No one else noticed. Too bad.

"Well that's sorted then," Mom said, looking pleased. Then she and my dad went off with Jack trailing along behind them.

So it looked like I had the house to myself this weekend.

Excellent.


	10. Chapter 9: Suze

**Before you read this you should go check out the last chapter because I added an extra bit onto it. **

**Chapter 9 – Suze **

I didn't have a clue about what I was going to do about this Jesse thing. Oh sure, I'd told Grace not to worry, that I was on it. But, seriously, it's not that easy! It's one thing passing this sort of message on to a total stranger, but to _Jesse_ of all people! I couldn't do it. I didn't have his phone number, either. And even if I did… well there was something about the irony of the situation that I just couldn't bring myself to face. I mean, I finally find a guy who's totally nice and hot and seems to really like me; he's the perfect excuse for me to stop thinking about Jesse, and now I'm being forced to. And I just know that if I speak to Jesse then I'm going to start hoping that something will come out of it and that's just not fair on Paul. But I don't want to dump Paul because I like him and nothing's ever going to happen with Jesse anyway so what's the point?

I know that all I've got to do is just stop fussing over nothing and get it over with, but I really can't bring myself to do it. So that's basically why it's been over a week since I first spoke to Grace and I still haven't spoken to Jesse.

By some miracle, we were actually early for school today, and it gave me some time to think about this before homeroom. So I was sitting on a bench by myself in the mission's courtyard, doing just that, when Paul found me.

"Hey," he said softly and I looked up at him. He was giving me this smile that made me feel like I wasn't just some stupid teenage girl, who'd never had a boyfriend before, instead I felt special. I loved it when he looked at me like that.

"Hey," I replied and he sat down next to me.

"What're you doing?" he asked, moving closer.

"Just thinking," I whispered and my eyes fluttered closed as he kissed me. I think Paul must have been my ultimate problem solver. He didn't even know what my problems were, but somehow when he kissed me they all disappeared.

"You know, we're probably gonna get caught by a novice or someone," I breathed after a minute, my face still delightfully close to his.

"So?" he said with roguish grin.

"So maybe we should only carry on for just _little_ bit longer."

"Hmm," Paul said, "we'll see how that goes then."

I laughed a little then went back to kissing him.

Eventually we did stop because we had things to discuss, like what we were going to do tonight.

"Are there any parties tonight?" I asked. I wasn't usually a party girl, as I was hardly ever invited to any, not since Kelly realised I wasn't going to suck up to her like everyone else, anyway. But Paul still got invited to them, and we'd been to one or two together. It was usually quite fun.

"There's one we could go to tomorrow, but nothing tonight."

"Oh," I said, "So what should we do instead?"

"We could go to the beach again. You know, for a walk," Paul suggested.

"That sounds good, we could have like a picnic or something… Ooh! We could have a disco picnic!"

Paul looked amused. "On the beach?"

"Why not?"

"Suze, you've been hanging around with Adam McTavish for too long."

I laughed, he was probably right. "It's a good idea, though."

"If by 'good', you actually mean 'nuts', then yeah, sure it is."

I tried to look hurt, but I couldn't help grinning. "Come on, I bet you've never been to a disco picnic on the beach before."

"Yeah," Paul answered, "and there's a reason for that."

"Paul," I said, using my most serious voice. "I've made up my mind. You can't talk me out of this."

"Suze, you're being –"

"Look at the time Paul!" I interrupted, "We're going to be later for first period!"

I laughed and got up, pulling Paul with me. He rolled his eyes. "We'll talk about this later."

--

I saw Jesse by himself at lunch. It would have been the perfect chance for me to go talk to him, if I'd had the guts to do so. Instead I just watched him, wondering how Grace knew him. It seemed a lot like she'd been his girlfriend before she died and I didn't know what to make of that. Because on one hand Grace seemed like a nice normal girl, she was pretty, but not in an over the top Kelly Prescott kind of way. And in that case, there didn't seem to be any reason why he couldn't go out with another nice, normal girl. One like me, for instance. But, on the other hand, the whole reason Grace wanted me to give this message to Jesse was because he didn't want to move on, so no, I wouldn't have a chance with him.

I knew I shouldn't have been thinking those things now that I was going out with Paul. Especially after I'd been kissing him – and loving every minute of it – not so long ago. But I suppose there was a part of me that was always going to be curious about Jesse, and whether anything could have happened between us. I couldn't help it.

Eventually, I watched him walk away and my chance to talk to him was gone. Grace appeared shortly afterwards.

"Whey didn't you tell him?" she asked. She seemed annoyed and I hoped I hadn't totally misjudged her when I said that she was nice, because I so did not want to have to deal with an uncontrollably angry ghost in the middle of school. Not that this would have been the first time it had happened to me, but still, it was never any picnic.

"Not now, okay," I whispered, hoping nobody would notice me talking to thin air.

"But you just let him get away!"

"I said, not now," I hissed.

Grace started to protest, but I ignored her because I'd just noticed someone walking in my direction. That someone being Kelly Prescott, the last person I wanted to deal with right now.

"Hey Suze," she said sweetly and I groaned inwardly, because it was _that_ obvious that she was up to something.

"Hi Kelly," I said, thankful that Grace chose that moment to dematerialise, looking annoyed. "What do you want?"

"What makes you think I want something?" she asked in what I suppose she thought was an innocent manner. Just so you know, Kelly Prescott can so not pull off innocent, not with me, anyway. "Aren't we allowed to talk to each other now?"

God, I so wasn't in the mood for this.

"Well what do you want to talk about then?" I asked.

"I was just wondering how things were going with you and Paul."

Wow, that was subtle, Kelly.

"Everything's going great Kelly. Thanks for asking."

"It's just that I never really thought Paul was your type," she said casually.

"Well, I guess you were wrong then," I said.

Kelly smirked. "Right, I guess I was. But you do know he's pretty much only interested in sex, right?"

Oh God, I knew Kelly was jealous, but I never thought she'd stoop to this. I swear I could have punched her right then, the only thing that was restraining me was really not wanting to get a detention.

"God, Kelly, for once could you just take a day off from being a bitch? Because I'm really not in the mood right now."

Kelly just kept smirking. "Suze, I'm just looking out for you."

"Yeah? Well you'd better start looking out for yourself instead, because otherwise you won't have your teeth for very much longer."

I guess she believed me because her perfectly made up eyes widened and she got away from my as quickly as she could.

I quickly forgot about what Kelly said to me, because like I was actually going to believe someone as jealous as that.

Paul hadn't been able to talk me out of my plan for the ultimate date, and had eventually agreed that it sounded 'kind of fun'. I was, naturally, quite pleased with myself when he gave in, I mean, we'd only been going out for just over a week and I already had him wrapped around my little finger. It was totally cool.

Paul came to pick me up at five. I'd managed to persuade Andy to let m skip dinner, he hadn't been too happy about it, but my mom had told him I should be allowed go out and have some fun. I suppose she was just pleased that I was _finally_ getting some attention from the opposite sex.

"Did you get it?" I asked as I got into Paul's car.

"Yes," Paul replied. "Although this is doing nothing for my reputation."

I laughed. Paul and I had made a deal that if I provided the food, he'd provide the iPod and speakers that we were going to use for our disco music. I'd even managed to persuade him to download YMCA for the occasion. You can't have a disco without YMCA; it's unheard of.

We were about halfway to the beach when the rain started.

I told Paul to keep going, thinking it would probably stop after a while. But there were big grey storm clouds moving in from the pacific and the rain was getting heavier by the minute. I realised there would be no disco picnicking for me this evening.

"You did that on purpose," I said to Paul grumpily.

Paul smirked. "I hate to disappoint you, Suze, but I can't control the weather any more than you can."

"What are we going to do now?" I asked.

Paul thought for a bit. "We could go to my place," he said. "My parents and my brother have gone back to Seattle for the weekend so there'll be no one to disturb us."

It sounded like a good idea to me; we could have a disco picnic indoors just as easily as we could on the beach. Besides, I wanted to see what Paul's house was like, I hadn't been there yet.

"Okay," I said. "That would be good."

I still made him play the song, though.

Paul's house must have cost a fortune. I'd known he wasn't exactly poor because he'd never had a problem paying for me on dates – even though I always offered to split the bill – but I didn't know he was worth this much. But then I guess I'd never asked and "Hi I'm Paul! I'm rich," isn't exactly a normal conversation starter. Unless you're desperate, of course. Still, he had told me that his parents where doctors, maybe I should have expected something like this.

"Impressive," I said as I got out of the car.

"Thanks," Paul said. "Come on let's get out of the rain."

A pretty good suggestion, I thought. We must have been standing there for about ten seconds, but by the time we got inside my hair and sweater were both soaking.

"Trust me to forget to check the weather forecast," I said, rolling my eyes.

Paul smiled. "Come on, let's go find a towel or something for your hair."

Ten minutes later we were sat on the couch in Paul's living room eating the cheese sandwiches I'd brought for the disco picnic. The lights were dimmed and the fire was blazing in front of us. Very romantic.

"So," I said, "Tell me what you think. Are these the best cheese sandwiches you ever tasted or what? I made them myself, you know."

Paul grinned. "They're amazing, Suze. What's your secret?"

"Um… it's just cheese on bread really."

Gosh, now I thought about it, maybe I should have made more of an effort. After all he _did_ download YMCA for me, if anyone at school found out about that, then he'd never live it down.

Paul smirked. "I thought you said your step-dad was some kind of master chef or something."

"Well, yeah but, it's not like we're related or anything… and my mom certainly can't cook."

"Well, that explains it then," Paul said.

I gasped. "Are you _dissing_ the cheese sandwich?" I asked, appalled.

"Of course not," Paul said trying to keep a straight face.

"Yes you were! I've never been so insulted!"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Can you ever forgive me?" Paul asked, still smiling.

I turned away from him. "No! I'm too hurt."

Paul's grin turned mischievous. "Really? We'll see about that."

I looked at him, confused. "What are you – "

I didn't get to finish my question because he pulled me towards him and kissed me.

He kissed me and my head went spinning off to some other reality where cheese sandwiches didn't matter.

Yeah, it was that good.

"Okay," I gasped when I could finally bear to pull myself away. "Okay, I forgive you."

"I knew you would," Paul said then he started to trail hot kisses down my neck and I wondered how he'd managed to manoeuvre the two of us so that he was lying on top of me without me even noticing.

I couldn't manage a reply because I was too busy trying to deal with how good this felt. I could hardly believe this was happening to me. For so long, no guy had ever paid the slightest bit of attention to me and to go from nothing to… _this_ was so weird, I couldn't even begin to describe it. It was good, though. It was _so_ good; I can say that at least.

I had no idea what I was doing but my hands seemed to have minds of their own. One in his hair, the other cupping his face, guiding his mouth back up to mine, then it went down to explore that delicious chest of his. And all the time he was doing the same, his hand swept down under my shirt and across my abdomen, causing the most amazing sensations wherever his skin touched mine. I continued to kiss him fiercely and his hands started to creep further up. I couldn't even think about what he was doing to me, my senses were going haywire because of how good it all felt.

It was only when he stopped kissing me and started to tug on the hem of my t-shirt, trying to pull it up over my head that I realised what I was doing. And then my hand flew up and gripped his wrist. "Stop," I said in a shaky voice.

I don't know what Paul had been expecting me to do, but it certainly hadn't been that. "What's wrong?" he asked, looking totally puzzled, but I was already trying to wriggle out from underneath him.

"I can't do this," I told him. "Paul can you please get up."

Paul did what I asked but didn't look too happy about it. I jumped up as quickly as I could, pulling my shirt back down and smoothing out my skirt. "Suze, are you okay?" he asked.

"I- I won't do… that with you," I told him, my cheeks burning.

Paul didn't say anything; he looked confused, like he wasn't sure what exactly had just happened.

I felt the same way, I'd actually been this close to just letting him get on with it, it had felt so good…

But it was so, so wrong.

I wasn't sure what to say now. I wished Paul would apologise or something, tell me it was okay if I wasn't ready, but he was just staring at me, waiting for some kind of explanation. I was suddenly seeing a new side to Paul. Kelly's words from earlier were coming back to me with the force of a sledgehammer…

_You do know he's pretty much only interested in sex, right?_

Oh, God.

I hadn't believed her for a second earlier, but now… If that weren't true then surely he would have waited. We'd known each other for just under two weeks for God's sake! He must have known I wasn't going to just jump into bed with him straight away. Sure I might have encouraged him a little but that didn't mean he had to take advantage of the situation.

Suddenly, a lot of things were becoming clear to me. Why he hadn't wanted to go to the beach with me, for instance. He knew his parents weren't going to be home and he'd wanted me here instead.

"I want to go home," I told him suddenly and he frowned.

"What? Suze we just got a little carried away, you don't have to _leave!_"

I started looking for my shoes, I knew I'd kicked them off somewhere around here.

"Yes, I do. It's obvious that you and I both want very different things out of this relationship."

Paul was starting to get exasperated. "What are you talking about, Suze? You were happy enough just a minute ago."

I found my shoes and slipped them onto my feet.

"Look, Paul, you've made it clear to me what sort of girl you're into and I think I should just tell you now that I'm not like that, in order to prevent further disappointment on your behalf. I'm sorry but I don't think we should see each other anymore."

Then I grabbed my sweater and left the room.

* * *

**Sorry if there are mistakes in this chapter, I didn't really have time to proof read it properly. And can you tell me what you think of the ending of this chapter? I'm not sure if it all happened a bit too quickly. I guess it's just because it's getting late and I really want to post this tonight. Constuctive critisism is welcome as usual.**

**Anyway, guess who is gonna be in the next chapter?**

**Yeah, y'all know who I'm talking about.**

**Please review.**


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